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Isenberg is a prolific videographer, producing short and feature-length documentary features for such venues as The Tico Times, The Pittsburgh Foundation, Pittsburgh on Video, The San Diego Reader, Patch.com, WQED’s Filmmakers’ Corner, and others. Here are some samples.

Features

What happens when an East Coaster takes on one of the tallest mountains in North America? Pittsburgh writer Robert Isenberg decided to find out. After living most of his adult life at sea level, Isenberg flew to Las Vegas, drove across Death Valley, and attempted to summit 14,500-ft.-tall Mt. Whitney—the tallest peak in the contiguous 48 states.

THE MOUNTAIN is his good-humored documentary about alpine hiking. A follow-up to his 2012 debut THE TRAIL, THE MOUNTAIN explores small-town California, Hollywood legends, a Japanese internments camp, and the spirit of the West. Using interviews and DIY filmmaking techniques, Isenberg illustrates a breathtaking desert landscape that continues to astonish pilgrims from the Eastern seaboard. He contends with ice-fields, altitude sickness, and the threat of bears—all in the hopes of standing higher than anyone in the country.

In this high-spirited documentary, writer Robert Isenberg pedals from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., along the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal. An ordinary bike commuter, Isenberg weathers rainstorms, fatigue, and the loneliness of the open road — and explores some of the most beautiful country in Appalachia. Good-humored and thought-provoking, “The Trail” is a love letter to Western Pennsylvania and the bicycling life.

For two years, Isenberg worked as a staff writer and multimedia producer for The Tico Times of Costa Rica. He produced nearly 50 short documentaries about Costa Rican life for Central America’s most distinguished English-language newspaper.